82 
THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA chap. 
men out on foot. M took command of the fifteen dis- 
mounted policemen, while I collected my own sepoys and an 
infantry guard then stationed at Bulhar ; they amounted to 
about thirty rank and file, all belonging to the Bombay infantry. 
While the Ba-Gadabursi were still quite a thousand yards aw^ay, 
M , having drawn up the police along the sea-shore, gave 
the signal we had agreed upon, firing two volleys at the distant 
line of a few hundred natives. They bolted at once, and I had 
a running skirmish with them for half an hour over two or 
three miles of grassy plain, after which we lost touch of them 
altogether. We found, however, some fifteen men hiding in 
the grass or diving about in the surf, and one wounded man, 
and brought them all in, with a collection of some thirty spears 
thrown away in the retreat. Most of these were given back 
next day. 
There was a lull after this, but on the following day half a 
dozen elders of the offending tribe came in and called upon 
M , and we held a council with them outside his quarters, 
a large crowd of spectators coming from Bulhar village to look 
on. The elders, led by Warsama DugM, explained that they 
had no quarrel with the Government, but only with the Boho. 
Their young men had, however, been boasting a good deal, not 
seeing why they should be kept out of Bulhar, saying that they 
did not care for the Government, and would go in and burn the 
town. The elders had then given them Punch’s advice, “ Don’t,” 
but they had not listened to it. “Now,” said the elders to 
M , “you have fired upon our boys; that was bad of you, 
but next time they will listen to our advice.” After we had 
shaken hands cordially with them, for they were all personally 
known to us, they rode away to Eil Sheikh. The wounded 
man, who had only received a bullet through the foot, was put 
under medical treatment, and in a few days limped out to his 
tribe. Soon after the second skirmish M brought the Boho 
and Ba-Gadabursi to a settlement, only to break out again some 
months later. 
Meanwhile, on 1st February I was free to start for the 
interior on my survey trip. I had arranged to go in by So 
Midg^n and Eil Anod to the Interior Plains, and thence to 
strike through the Maritime Bange to Berbera. My caravan 
consisted of eighteen Aden hill camels with Arab drivers, seven- 
teen sabres of Indian mounted police, and ten Bombay infantry 
sepoys. We drove with us a small herd of Aden donkeys, so 
